Rotary saws, such as table saws or hand-held circular saws, for example, are among the most versatile and widely-used of all types of saws. Such rotary saws allow a user to perform many types of cuts (such as cross cuts and plunge cuts, for example) and cut through a wide variety of materials, such as paneling, framing timbers, and cement. A typical rotary saw includes a circular saw blade that is rotated about a central axis by an electro-mechanical drive. The saw blade has a plurality of cutting features disposed around a circumference of the blade, and a portion of the blade extends beyond a guide feature. When a piece of material to be cut is displaced along the guide feature towards the portion of the blade that extends beyond the guide feature, the cutting features of the blade engage the piece of material, thereby cutting a channel in or through the piece of material. However, because the piece of material is typically manually moved towards the blade by a user, the user is at risk of serious injury if the cutting features of the blade contacts a finger of the user. To reduce or eliminate the risk of injury, several rotary saws have an active detection and mitigation feature that (1) detects contact (or imminent contact) by a human finger and (2) takes an action to mitigate any further injury (stops the rotation of the circular blade and/or retracts the blade such that no portion of the blade can further damage the finger). Each of these operations must occur in a very short amount of time—typically, well under one second—to be effective.